Twilight Inscription
Twilight Inscription Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
In Twilight Inscription, each player assumes the role of a major faction from the Twilight Imperium universe as they expand from their homeworld into the galaxy. Through technological superiority, military power, and industrial zeal, each faction seeks to become the dominant force within the galaxy.
Twilight Inscription is a competitive roll-and-write game for one to eight players. The primary components are sheets that the players write on with dry-erase chalk markers. Throughout play, the players mark their sheets in a variety of ways, trying to collect as many victory points as possible. The player with the most victory points at the end of the game is the winner!
Components
- 1 Rulebook and 1 "Play as You Learn" Guide
- 32 Player Sheets (8 Navigation, 8 Expansion, 8 Industry, 8 Warfare)
- 1 Mecatol Rex Sheet
- 24 Faction Cards
- 25 Event Cards
- 12 Objective Cards
- 16 Relic Cards
- 12 Agenda Cards
- 1 Speaker Card
- 8 Reference Cards
- 8 Dry-Erase Chalk Markers
- 3 Black Dice
- 3 Focus Dice
Chalk Markers
Before the first game, the markers must be primed by shaking them with the caps on for 20 seconds. Markers should be stored with their caps firmly on.
The erasers are ideally suited for small corrections. Before erasing a mark, allow it to dry for 10 seconds to avoid smudging.
To erase the sheets after a game, wipe them with dry paper towels. Slightly damp paper towels can be used to remove any residue that builds.
Setup
Perform the following steps to set up the game. (If you want to play the game as you set up and learn the rules, close this rulebook and read the "Play as You Learn" guide instead.)
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Prepare Player Sheets: Deal one random Navigation sheet, Expansion sheet, Industry sheet, and Warfare sheet to each player. Each player places their sheets in front of them. If the players prefer variety and unique opportunities, they should use side A of their sheets, which are all different. For a symmetrical game in which all players have the same opportunities, they should use side B. The side indicator is in the corner next to the name of each sheet.
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Choose Factions: Shuffle the faction cards and deal three to each player. Each player chooses one, places it next to their sheets, and returns the rest to the game box. If a player's chosen faction card has "Setup:" text, they resolve that now.
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Prepare Mecatol Rex Sheet: Place the Mecatol Rex sheet in the middle of the table. Shuffle the agenda cards that have the Stage II back and place one facedown below the Mecatol Rex sheet. Return the remaining Stage II agendas to the game box. Repeat for the Stage III and IV agenda cards. (If playing with one or two players, follow the solo/two-player setup to modify this step and to choose a difficulty.)
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Prepare Event Deck: Separate the event cards into ten piles according to their backs (stage number and color). Shuffle each pile facedown. Then, stack the Stage V cards facedown, starting with a blue card on the bottom and alternating between blue and black cards. Construct the other stages in the same way. Then, combine the stages into a single deck with Stage V on bottom and Stage I on top. Place the deck next to the Mecatol Rex sheet.
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Reveal Objectives: Separate the objective cards by type (Navigation, Expansion, Industry, and Warfare) and shuffle each type separately. Place one random card of each type above the Mecatol Rex sheet; the side that has two victory point values at the bottom should be faceup. Return the remaining objectives to the game box.
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Prepare Other Components: Shuffle the relic deck. Place the relic deck and the dice next to the Mecatol Rex sheet. Give one reference card and one dry-erase marker to each player.
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Choose Speaker: Give the Speaker card to the most experienced player — the Speaker is responsible for helping to run the game. The Speaker begins the first round by flipping the top card of the event deck.
Player Sheet Layout: The recommended layout places Navigation and Expansion in the top row and Warfare and Industry in the bottom row, but players can lay out their sheets in any arrangement to suit their table space, writing habits, etc. Players can also freely move their sheets around during play.
Fundamental Concepts
Player Sheets
Each player's sheets represent their progress in becoming a dominant force in the galaxy. Each player decides which sheets to invest in, representing their focus as scholarly explorers, war-mongering industrialists, diplomatic expansionists, and more.
A player can win the game by focusing on a few sheets or efficiently investing in all four. New players are encouraged to focus on the Navigation and Expansion sheets while they are learning how the game works.
Each player's sheets are exclusive to that player; they never mark other players' sheets.
Assets
Players mark their sheets with the goal of claiming assets. Assets are the icons within dotted or dashed circles, and each sheet has a different way to claim its assets. There are many types, but players should particularly pay attention to victory point assets, which determine scores at the end of the game. When a player claims an asset, they circle it.
Assets with a dotted outline have an effect that the player must resolve immediately. Assets with a dashed outline do not have an immediate effect; they can be saved until the player chooses to spend them. To spend an asset, the player crosses it out with a single slash mark.
Resources
The main way that players mark their sheets is by spending resources. There are three resources: material, influence, and research. Dice and cards provide these resources for players to spend on their sheets.
Each sheet uses resources in a different way, but they follow two principles:
- Cross Out a Matching Icon: Players can spend a resource to cross out a matching icon (e.g., spending 3 material on the Warfare sheet to build a cruiser).
- Use an Icon Legend: The Navigation and Industry sheets have an icon legend. Players can spend a resource to resolve the effect next to that icon in the legend. They do not mark the icons in the legend (e.g., spending 1 influence on the Navigation sheet to claim a system).
The complete rules for marking each sheet are described in the sections that follow.
Playing the Game
The game is played over a series of rounds. Each round, the Speaker reveals the top card of the event deck, reads it aloud, and the players follow the instructions on the card. Then, the card is discarded near the deck, and a new round begins. Play continues in this way until the players resolve the Stage V event "A Throne for the Taking," which ends the game.
There are four types of event cards: strategy, war, council, and production. The rules of each type are described below.
Markers Down: All event cards involve the players simultaneously marking their sheets in some way. The Speaker is responsible for determining when everyone is finished marking so that the game can proceed. To assist the Speaker, players should cap their markers and place them on the table to indicate that they are finished marking their sheets. Players often need to remember which of their sheets is "active" after they finish marking it; they can place their marker next to that sheet as a reminder.
Strategy Event Cards
Most cards in the event deck are strategy events, which provide the players with the resources they spend to mark their sheets. To resolve a strategy event, the players perform the following steps together:
- Choose Active Sheet and Spend Card Resources: Each player chooses one of their four sheets to be their active sheet until the end of the round. Then, they spend the resources provided by the event card to mark that sheet.
- Speaker Rolls Dice: The Speaker rolls all six dice.
- Spend Dice Resources: Each player spends the resources provided by the black dice to mark their active sheet. If that player has unlocked any focus dice on the active sheet, they can spend the resources from the unlocked dice as well.
During strategy events, players can also spend their claimed assets to mark their active sheet. A player can spend assets from any of their sheets.
The following restrictions also apply:
- Players cannot mark inactive sheets except to cross out a spent asset or if instructed to by a game effect.
- Players cannot look at other players' sheets until they have finished marking their own active sheet.
Each sheet has different rules for how it is marked, described in the following sections.
Navigation
Each player's Navigation sheet allows them to explore the galaxy for assets and rediscover Mecatol Rex, the fallen capital of the Lazax Empire. The planet assets here are particularly important because they can be spent on the Expansion sheet to unlock planets.
The Navigation sheet is a web of hyperlanes, represented by dotted lines, and systems, represented by the small and large circles connected to hyperlanes. Most systems contain an asset, but a few are empty systems.
By spending resources, a player can explore and claim systems. A system is explored when a line is traced to it, and it is claimed when it is circled. At the start of the game, each player's home system is already claimed, and the adjacent systems with a preprinted orange line are already explored.
Exploring a System
To explore a system, the player spends either a material or research resource as shown in the sheet's icon legend. Then, they trace a solid line over a hyperlane from an explored system to an unexplored system.
Some systems are connected to a wormhole. Wormholes offer shortcuts to distant territory and access to rare assets, but players must unlock the Gravity Drive technology before they can explore through wormholes. To explore through a wormhole, the player traces a solid line into the wormhole. Then, they choose another wormhole on their sheet and trace a solid line from it to the system connected to it.
Claiming a System
To claim an explored system, the player spends an influence resource as shown in the icon legend. Then, they trace a circle around the system; if the system contains an asset, that asset is claimed.
Claiming the Mecatol Rex system provides multiple rewards, particularly for the player who claims it first; the Mecatol Rex system is described in the "Mecatol Rex Sheet" section.
Expansion
Each player's Expansion sheet provides them with numerous assets that improve the effectiveness of their other sheets. This sheet also provides the main source of population, which can be worth many victory points.
The Expansion sheet contains a variety of planets. These planets begin the game locked and are not available for development. To unlock a planet, the player must spend a planet asset to cross out the planet icon next to the planet's name.
To develop an unlocked planet, the player spends resources — for each resource they spend, they cross out any matching icon on that planet. When they cross out all the resource icons in a row or column, they claim the asset shown next to that row or column.
The Expansion sheet also contains three space docks that can be built. To build a space dock, the player either spends one planet asset or spends resources to cross out all the icons in its row. After a space dock is built, the player claims its asset by circling it.
Resource Tracker: The top of the Expansion sheet has a resource tracker. This portion of the sheet has no game effect; it is a tool to help the player keep track of how many resources they have spent during a round. At the end of each round, the player erases all marks on the tracker to reset it for the next round. The tracker can be used regardless of which sheet is active.
Industry
The Industry sheet represents a faction's investment in infrastructure and economy. It depicts the faction's industry grid. By spending resources, the player can either scrap (cross out) or claim (circle) grid spaces. A space cannot be marked in both ways; a claimed space cannot be scrapped, and vice versa. Each grid has a scrapped space that is preprinted.
Each grid space contains an asset. Scrapping a space destroys its asset, but that is often a necessary investment — spaces cannot be claimed unless they are adjacent to a scrapped space. Finding a balance between scrapping and claiming is crucial.
- To scrap a space, the player spends a material resource as shown in the icon legend. Then, they cross out a space that is adjacent to a scrapped or claimed space (in other words, adjacent to any marked space).
- To claim a space, the player spends an influence or research resource as shown in the icon legend. Then, they circle the asset in a space that is adjacent to a scrapped space.
As shown in the icon legend, two specialty assets can each be spent as several material or influence resources. These resources are spent one at a time but cannot be interrupted to spend other resources or assets.
Some spaces of the grid have a dotted "X" pattern and a tag showing a specialty asset. These spaces cannot be marked normally. Instead, the player must spend the specialty asset shown in the tag to scrap that space. This can provide quick access to a distant section of the grid, or it can make a detached section accessible.
Industry Chart
The Industry sheet also contains a chart that reflects the number of councilors and commodities that the player has claimed.
Councilors allow the player to claim votes during council events. When a player claims a councilor, regardless of which sheet it was claimed on, they immediately unlock the leftmost "+1 vote" icon in the chart by underlining it. If the player unlocks all of the "+1 vote" icons to the left of a victory point asset, they claim that asset.
Commodities allow the player to claim trade goods during production events. There are three types of commodities, and each commodity asset is worth one or two of that commodity. When a player claims a commodity, regardless of which sheet it was claimed on, they immediately cross out the leftmost unmarked icon of that type in the chart. If the player crosses out all of the commodity icons to the left of a victory point asset, they claim that asset. If they cross out all of the commodity icons above a "+1 trade good" icon, they unlock it by underlining it.
Warfare
The Warfare sheet depicts a player's military forces and the results of conflicts with their two neighbors, the players sitting on either side of them. By spending resources, each player builds and deploys units to fight neighbors and claim war spoils.
Building Units
This sheet depicts numerous types of units. Each unit has a cost, a shape, and may have a victory point asset. The cost and victory point asset of a single unit is shown across a horizontal band (e.g., one cruiser costs three material and is worth 1 victory point).
To build a unit, the player spends resources to cross out the matching icons in the unit's cost. These can be crossed out in any order. When the final icon in the cost is crossed out, the unit is built — the player claims the unit's victory point asset and must deploy the unit, described next. Infantry cost one of any resource to build and are unlimited, but all other unit types are limited to the number available on the sheet.
The bottom two unit types, dreadnoughts and war suns, begin the game locked. The player cannot start building these units until they spend the specialty asset shown next to the name to cross out that icon.
Deploying Units
Units are deployed on the war grid, which is divided into eight sections — four on the left half of the grid and four on the right half. The player deploys units into the left half's sections to oppose the neighbor to their left, and they deploy units in the right half to oppose the neighbor to the right. The bottom two sections are used for the first war event, the next two sections are for the second war event, and so forth.
The bottom line of the grid is the starting deployment line, which indicates where players begin deploying their units. Units are deployed on the nodes of the grid. Some nodes of the grid are assets or anomalies.
To deploy a unit, the player draws the unit's shape onto the war grid, following these rules:
- The shape can be rotated and flipped.
- The entire shape must be above the deployment line.
- Part of the shape must be in the first row of nodes above the deployment line or adjacent to another unit.
- The shape cannot be drawn over an anomaly node or a node occupied by another unit.
- If a unit is drawn over an asset node, that asset is claimed (circled).
During a war, each marked node adds to a player's strength. Wars are resolved when a war event card is drawn.
War Event Cards
War event cards represent galactic tensions boiling over into open warfare. Each stage of the event deck, except the first stage, contains a war event. When one of these cards is revealed, all players resolve a war against each of their neighbors. Winning a war provides a player with a valuable asset, and losing a war costs the player precious victory points.
A player's strength during a war is determined by the marked nodes on their Warfare sheet. Each marked node (including asset nodes) adds one strength to its section. Strength does not carry forward from section to section, so players need to deploy units into each section to maintain their military might.
To resolve a war event card, the players perform the following steps:
- Advance Deployment Line: Trace a line over the next dashed horizontal line of the war grid. This is the new deployment line.
- Total Strength Against Left Neighbor: Each player counts the number of marked nodes in the left section immediately below the new deployment line. Then, they add any bonuses from other sources (such as the Fleet Logistics technology) and write the total in the box to the left of the section.
- Total Strength Against Right Neighbor: Each player repeats step 2 using the right section immediately below the new deployment line.
- Compare Strength to Left Neighbor: Each player compares the number in their left strength box to the number in the right strength box of the neighbor to their left. If their own strength exceeds the neighbor's strength, they win that war and circle the asset above their left strength box. If their own strength is lower than the neighbor's strength, they lose that war and circle the negative victory point asset below their left strength box. In the case of a tie, the player crosses out both of the left strength box's assets; they neither win nor lose that war.
- Compare Strength to Right Neighbor: Each player repeats step 4 using their right strength box against the left strength box of the neighbor to their right.
After everyone resolves their wars, a new round begins.
Production Event Cards
Production event cards represent each faction's economic might coming to fruition. There are three production events during the game (in stages II, III, and IV).
When a production event card is revealed, the players claim trade goods. Each player circles one trade good asset on their Industry sheet for each "+1 trade good" icon they have unlocked in their Industry chart.
After everyone finishes production, a new round begins.
Council Event Cards
Council events represent the convening of the Galactic Council. During a council event, each player votes on a pressing agenda, hoping to sway the outcome in their favor. There are three council events during the game (in stages II, III, and IV).
When a council event card is revealed, the players claim votes. Each player circles one vote asset on their Industry sheet for each "+1 vote" icon they have unlocked in their Industry chart. The first "+1 vote" icon is unlocked by default, so players always claim at least one vote.
After votes are claimed, the Speaker reveals the agenda card indicated by the council event card. Each agenda has a "Pass" outcome and a "Fail" outcome; players can cast votes in support of either outcome or abstain from voting.
To vote on an agenda, the players follow these steps:
- Declare Agenda: The Speaker reads the agenda aloud and the players debate the merits of each outcome.
- Cast Votes: Each player picks up their Industry sheet. In the voting box, each player secretly draws a check mark next to "Pass" or "Fail" and writes how many of their votes they are casting. If a player abstains, they do not mark anything in the voting box.
- Announce Votes: Starting with the player to the Speaker's left and proceeding clockwise, each player reveals how they voted. The Speaker tallies the votes for each outcome on the Mecatol Rex sheet.
- Resolve Outcome: The Speaker totals the votes cast for each outcome, and the players resolve the outcome that received the most votes. If the vote was tied, the Speaker rolls one black die. On a material result, the "Pass" outcome is resolved; on an influence or research result, the "Fail" outcome is resolved.
- Spend Votes: Each player crosses out one claimed vote asset for each vote they cast. Then, they erase their voting box and the voting tallies on the Mecatol Rex sheet.
After everyone spends the votes that they cast, a new round begins.
Additional Rules
Assets
Assets are icons in a dotted or dashed outline. Assets with a dotted outline have an immediate effect that the player must resolve when they claim the asset. These assets are not spent and thus are not crossed out, though some abilities allow a player to spend a dotted-outline asset for an additional effect.
Assets with a dashed outline do not have an immediate effect; they are resolved when the player chooses to spend them during a strategy event. When a player spends an asset, they cross it out with a single slash mark.
The effect of each asset:
- Victory Points: This asset is worth victory points at the end of the game equal to the number shown.
- Planet: This asset is spent on the Expansion sheet to unlock a planet or to build a space dock.
- Trade Good: Players can spend trade goods while resolving a strategy event card. Each trade good a player spends provides a resource of the player's choice (material, influence, or research) to spend on their active sheet. When a player is instructed to spend "free" trade goods, they do not claim or cross out any trade good assets.
- Vote: Players spend votes to support an outcome of an agenda. When a player is instructed to spend "free" votes, they do not claim or cross out any vote assets.
- Specialty: These assets are spent to unlock technologies. Additionally, they are spent on the Warfare sheet to unlock advanced units (dreadnoughts and war suns) or to build certain units. On the Industry sheet, some specialty assets are spent as shown in the icon legend or to scrap specified spaces of the grid.
- Focus: When a player spends one of these assets, they unlock the corresponding focus die on the active sheet. This allows the player to spend the resources from that die while that sheet is active.
- Commodities: When a player claims a commodity, they immediately cross out the next icon of that type in the Industry chart. By filling rows in the chart, players can claim victory point assets, and by filling columns in the chart, they can claim more trade goods during production events.
- Councilor: When a player claims a councilor, they immediately unlock the next "+1 vote" icon in their Industry chart by underlining it. By unlocking these icons, players can claim victory point assets and can claim more votes during council events.
- Population: When a player claims this asset, they immediately claim the next victory point asset in the population track on the Expansion sheet, starting from the bottom of the track.
- Faction: When a player claims this asset, they immediately resolve their faction's ability.
- Relic: When a player claims this asset on the Navigation sheet, they immediately draw the top card of the relic deck into their hand and write the victory point value of that relic in the box next to the relic system.
- Neighbor: Representing a neighbor's territory, this asset adds one strength to all wars against the neighbor in the direction of the icon's arrow. When a player claims this asset, they write "+1" into each strength box on the appropriate half of the war grid as a reminder.
Mecatol Rex Sheet
Mecatol Rex is the capital of the fallen Lazax empire and the home of the Galactic Council. When a player claims the Mecatol Rex system on their Navigation sheet, they write their faction's name on the Mecatol Rex sheet in the topmost open slot. They immediately claim the number of votes shown next to that slot by circling votes on their Industry sheet. Then, they write the number of victory points for that slot into the empty box next to the Mecatol Rex system.
If multiple players claim the Mecatol system during the same step of a round, they each write their name as usual, but they each gain the rewards shown for the highest slot that was written into during that step (e.g., if the third and fourth slots are filled during the same step, both of those players gain the three victory points and three votes shown for the third slot).
Technologies
Each sheet has two technologies that can be unlocked. A player can spend research resources to cross out the research icons on their active sheet's technologies; a technology is unlocked when all of its research icons are crossed out. Alternatively, a player can unlock a technology by spending the specialty asset shown in its cost.
Unlocked technologies are resolved as described in the technology's text. If a technology has the "Per Active:" header, it can be resolved only a single time each round that that sheet is active.
Focus Dice
Focus dice represent a faction's investment in a particular area of their civilization. Each focus die has a single type of resource on it, and two of its faces have two icons instead of one.
Even though the focus dice are rolled during every strategy event, a player cannot use a focus die unless it is unlocked on the active sheet. To unlock a focus die, the player must spend the matching focus die asset. Then, they underline that die's icon near the name of the active sheet. While that sheet is active, the player can spend the resources rolled on that die (even during the round it was unlocked).
Faction Cards
Each player takes the role of a faction from the Twilight Imperium setting, represented by a faction card. These cards have powerful abilities that provide players with advantages in one or more aspects of the game.
Each player can use the first ability on their faction card from the start of the game, resolving it as described in the ability's text. The second ability is resolved each time the player claims a faction asset.
Relic Cards
Relic cards provide powerful, one-time effects and are also worth victory points. When a player claims a relic system on the Navigation sheet, they draw a relic card and write the card's victory point value into the empty box next to the relic system.
Relic cards are played as described on the card. If a relic card does not need to be played immediately, it is kept secret in the player's hand until the player chooses to play it. After a player plays a relic, they place it faceup next to their faction card.
Objectives
Objectives allow players to claim additional victory points, particularly for the first player who completes the objective.
Each objective corresponds to one of the four player sheets. When a player fulfills the condition on the objective, they announce it and write the victory point value of the objective in the "Objective" box of the corresponding sheet.
Each objective has two victory point values. The player who completes the objective first gains the greater value; everyone else that completes it gains the lesser value. When an objective is first completed, it is flipped over as a reminder that the greater value is no longer available.
If multiple players are the first to complete an objective during the same step of a round, they both gain the greater value.
Winning the Game
The game ends after the players resolve the "A Throne for the Taking" event card, which is a Stage V event card. Then, the players score their sheets.
For each sheet, the player adds up the values of the victory point assets they claimed on that sheet and writes the total above the "Sheet" box. Then, if they completed that sheet's objective earlier in the game, they add the value they wrote above the "Objective" box and write the total above "Subtotal."
Important: On the Industry sheet, the player adds one to their subtotal for every two claimed trade goods they have remaining.
Then, each player sums their sheet subtotals to determine their final score, which the Speaker writes on the Mecatol Rex sheet next to that player's faction name. If their name is not on the sheet, the Speaker adds it now, but the player does not gain the slot's rewards.
The player with the most victory points is the new ruler of the galaxy and wins the game!
If players are tied for most victory points, the tied player with the most claimed votes remaining wins the game. If still tied, the tied players establish a coalition and share the victory.
Solo and Two-Player Rules
Twilight Inscription can be played with one or two players by simulating the progress of an AI faction.
The AI faction is represented by the AI side of the Mecatol Rex sheet. This side has six tracks that each correspond to a face on a focus die. The material track and the influence track determine the AI's strength and votes. The other four tracks are goal tracks that represent the AI's progress toward completing objectives and claiming Mecatol Rex. Over the course of the game, the AI progresses on these tracks based on the focus dice results.
To play with one or two players, incorporate the rules from the following sections. All of the other rules of the game still apply except for changes to setup and council events.
Setup
Set up the game as normal with the following changes:
- Prepare Mecatol Rex Sheet: Place the Mecatol Rex sheet so that the AI side is faceup. Shuffle each agenda deck and place each of those decks below the Mecatol Rex sheet (instead of just one card from each deck).
- Determine Neighbor (Two-player game only): The Speaker rolls one black die. On a material result, they are the other player's left neighbor for the game. On an influence or research result, they are the other player's right neighbor.
- Choose Difficulty: Choose a difficulty level for the AI faction.
- Easy: No changes.
- Medium: Cross out the leftmost icon of each goal track. Cross out the leftmost unmarked icon in the Stage II and III sections of the material (strength) track.
- Hard: Cross out the two leftmost icons of each goal track. Cross out the leftmost unmarked icon in the Stage II and III sections of the material (strength) and influence (vote) tracks.
Strategy Events
After rolling the dice during a strategy event, the Speaker marks the AI's progress on the Mecatol Rex sheet. For each focus die, the Speaker crosses out the leftmost unmarked icon on the track that matches the die's result.
Goal Tracks
Each goal track has one or more goals (such as a specific objective) displayed within the track. When all of the icons to the left of a goal are crossed out, the AI claims that goal.
If the goal is an objective, the AI completes that objective and flips the objective card if it has not been flipped already. If the goal is Mecatol Rex, the Speaker writes "AI Faction" into the topmost open slot of the Mecatol Rex sheet. The AI faction does not gain anything by achieving goals, but it may prevent players from gaining the best rewards for those goals. If a player achieves a goal during the same round as the AI, the player follows the usual resolution for tied players.
If all icons in a goal track are crossed out, the AI treats any additional results of that type as the result shown at the end of the track instead.
War Events
During a war event, the AI's strength is used for each war where a player has no neighbor. For one-player games, this means the AI's strength is used for both wars.
The AI's strength is equal to the value above the rightmost crossed-out icon on the material track for the indicated war event (e.g., for the Stage II war event, use the Stage II section of the track).
After resolving the war event, draw a line through any unmarked material icons in that stage's section of the track. This is the equivalent of advancing the AI's deployment line.
Council Events
During a council event, the players claim votes as normal. However, the normal process of voting on an agenda is replaced with the process listed below:
- Draw First Agenda: The Speaker draws the top card of the agenda deck for the indicated stage and tucks it faceup under the Speaker card so only the "Pass" outcome is visible.
- Draw Counter Agenda: The Speaker continues to draw agenda cards from that stage until they draw an eligible counter agenda. If the agenda under the Speaker card has a star icon next to "Pass," then agenda cards that do not have that icon are eligible, and vice versa. The Speaker tucks the first eligible counter agenda under the Speaker card so only the "Fail" outcome is visible.
- Cast Votes: The players cast their votes, but they do not mark "Pass" or "Fail." Then, the Speaker draws a line through any unmarked influence icons in the corresponding stage of the influence track, and they roll one black die. The AI casts votes equal to the number above the rightmost crossed-out icon on the influence track for the corresponding stage, plus additional votes based on the die roll: zero for material, one for influence, and two for research.
- Resolve Outcome: Each player who cast more votes than the AI resolves the outcome that has the star icon, which is a positive outcome. Each player who did not cast more votes than the AI must resolve the outcome that does not have the star icon, which is a negative outcome. Outcomes are resolved separately and do not affect other players.
- Spend Votes: As usual, each player crosses out one claimed vote for each vote they cast.
Winning the Game (Solo/Two-Player)
The player with the most victory points wins the game if their score ranks better than a "Loss" for the selected difficulty in the Solo/Two-Player Rank table.
| Easy | Medium | Hard | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loss | Loss | Loss | Lost in the Dark Years |
| 40 | Loss | Loss | Footnote in Galactic History |
| 60 | 60 | Loss | Fledgling Domain |
| 80 | 80 | 80 | Galactic Power |
| — | 100 | 100 | Ascendant Authority |
| — | — | 120 | Surpassed the Lazax |